Spaceflight Roadmap Elevates Biofilms as a Priority for Long-Duration Missions

Overview

• Published in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes on January 22, the article consolidates evidence that spaceflight conditions can reshape biofilm architecture, signaling, gene regulation, and stress tolerance.
• Researchers from the University of Glasgow, Maynooth University, and University College Dublin led the work through the GeneLab Microbes Analysis Working Group.
• The roadmap promotes multiomics across interkingdom, multispecies communities to move from descriptive studies toward mechanisms and practical interventions.
• Cross-mission and analog experiments with shared standards are prioritized through NASA’s Open Science Data Repository, an expansion of GeneLab, to maximize scarce flight opportunities.
• Plant guidance spotlights root-associated biofilms as critical to life-support systems on long missions, with anticipated benefits for health and agriculture on Earth.